The fact that a French court
acquitted Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy of homicide over the 1978
death of a young German tourist does not absolve him of
responsibility, Italy's supreme Court of Cassation ruled
Thursday.
The court said the 'prince', the son of Italy's last king
before the monarchy was deposed, has responsibility in "civil
and ethical" terms for the death of Dirk Hamer.
The court referred to the fact that Vittorio Emanuele
admitted his guilt to a cell mate during a stint in prison in a
separate corruption and prostitution case.
In a conversation with his cellmate, which was taped by
prosecutors in and published by the Italian press in 2006,
Vittorio Emanuele said: "At the trial, even though I was in the
wrong... I have to say I put one over on them".
The 80-year-old prince was referring to a 1991 trial in Paris
in which he was acquitted of murder charges in connection with
the fatal wounding ofHamer.
Hamer was accidentally shot twice on August 18, 1978 while he
was asleep on the deck of a boat anchored off a south Corsican
island.
One of the bullets severed an artery in the 19-year-old's
thigh. After four months of agony, during which he underwent 14
operations including a leg amputation, Hamer died.
Vittorio Emanuele, whose yacht was anchored near the one
on which Hamer was sleeping, was accused of shooting the
youth with hunting rifle by accident during a drunken row
with the passenger of another boat.
The prince was jailed for seven weeks but then released
without charge.
In October 1989, a Corsican court indicted the prince on
charges of fatal wounding and arms offenses but in November
1991, the Paris Appeals Court acquitted him of unintentional
homicide, finding him guilty only of the unauthorised
possession of a rifle.
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